Tap Handle #796: The Grizzly Paw - Grumpy Bear Honey Wheat

February 12, 2023

Tap Handle #796: The Grizzly Paw - Grumpy Bear Honey Wheat

Tap size: 11.25"

Rarity: 10 or less seen, tap no longer produced, hand-made

Mounting: 3/8" ferrule on 5/16" anchor bolt

The Grizzly Paw is a tap I feel very fortunate to have. Bill Ford, who I have mentioned several times was someone who had contributed several very rare taps to the Museum, was making this particular tap available to me. Unfortunately, due to my financial situation at the time, I was unable to make him an offer and he sold it on the secondary market. A couple of months later my finances had improved, and as luck would have it another The Grizzly Paw tap appeared on the secondary market, which I was able to acquire. It's a very cool tap with some neat details. The top half of the tap is a tree stump. A yellow, triangular sign at the top of the stump displays a bear footprint, to warn of "bears in the area". The sign has claw marks as if it has been clawed by a bear, and is actually the brewery's logo. At the bottom of the stump, in what is meant to be mud, are grizzly tracks. Below that, the name of the brewery is prominently displayed in raised and sculpted yellow letters. The bottom half of the tap is devoted to the signage: a frame of tree branches that are "tied" together with string surround a card that slips up through an opening in the bottom, and a small screw which prevents the card from falling out. A Canadian flag adorns the top of the branch of the frame. This signage layout is almost identical to the one in my previous profile of Newport Beach Brewing. A gold ferrule completes the look, and the label has some very nice artwork. While the back of the tap is mostly flat, the tree trunk at the top is sculpted all the way around. Although I'm not exactly sure when the tap was produced, if I had to guess, I would say it was produced from the mid to late 2000's, when only the brewpub existed and before the production brewery was built. Regardless, the tap has been out of production for many years. Besides this tap and the other that I mentioned above, I haven't seen any others.

The Grizzly Paw Brewing Company was founded in Canmore, Alberta, Canada in 1996 by Niall Fraser. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Fraser was actually raised in Edmonton, Alberta. After studying hotel management in Switzerland, he worked in the hotel industry all over the world, from Lausanne and Brussels to New York and Whistler. While living in Sydney, Australia, Fraser got the idea of opening a brewing company during his frequent visits to “The Rocks” in Sydney for a pint of beer. During a mini vacation to Canmore, where his parents owned rental property, the scenic mountains and friendly people convinced Fraser that this was the place to open his brewpub. In late 1994, The Grizzly Paw Brewing Company was born, and after a few challenges getting things off the ground, such as raising capital and securing a long term lease for the new brewpub, in late 1995 Fraser broke ground by demolishing two buildings on Main Street in downtown Canmore. A new building was constructed on the site using steel girders with wood "skins". A sign at the edge of the site alerted residents to "Beware of the Bear * Coming out of Hibernation * Spring '96". The plan was to build a pub with a second floor for a restaurant. A little brewhouse in the back held a 10-hectoliter system to make beer to sell in the pub. The brewery used a partial mash, brewing 200 liters from scratch and had a company based in England make wort.

Besides the restaurant, the second floor also housed a pool table, games, and a stone fireplace. The brewpub had a seating for 70 people, with another 50 seats on the patio and 100 seats in the dining area. Beers included house offerings as well as seasonals, often featuring Rutting Elk Red (Scottish-style amber ale); Powder Hound Pilsner; Grumpy Bear Honey Wheat; Beaver Tail Raspberry Ale; Big Head Nut Brown; Indra Island IPA; and Moose Knuckle Coffee Stout. Food offerings included hand made burgers and sandwiches, pasta, deep dish pizza, and house specialties such as fish and chips, hunter's stew, and chicken and leek pie. In 1998, once Fraser could dedicate more time for brewing instead of running the day to day operations of the business, he decided to buy a mash tun, and they became a full mash brewery. The Grizzly Paw was the first brewpub in Canada and the second in North America to can its beers, then a bottling line was added.

The brewpub was notable for attracting celebrities who were filming movies in the area, such as Anthony Hopkins, Elle McPherson, Bryan Brown and Bill Murray. Acclaim also came in the form of articles and awards. Powder Magazine listed The Grizzly Paw as the #1 Brewpub in Canada. Brewtopia was a wide-drawing Calgary-based annual brew festival. Since their first visit to Brewtopia in 1997, the Grizzly Paw earned the top-rated Brewpub every year; beating out chains and niche brewpubs alike. Brewtopia '98 saw The Grizzly Paw's Mooseknuckle Winter Stout take a Silver medal. Brewtopia '99 awarded The Grizzly Paw's Grumpy Bear Honey Wheat Ale the Gold medal as "Best-of-Fest", beating out strong quality breweries like Big Rock and Sleeman's. As it had in 1997-1998, at Brewtopia '99, The Grizzly Paw claimed Top Brewpub status.

In 2004, a major milestone was achieved when the company changed from a brewpub license to a microbrewery license, and they started selling beers outside of the pub. In 2006, the brewery added 6 handcrafted sodas to their lineup. The sodas were brewed with freshwater that streamed out of the Canmore reservoir, cane sugar, and no caffeine. In 2009, the brewery expanded with a new fermenting room behind the gift shop. In 2011 they broke ground for a new brewery facility. Grizzly Paw was struggling to keep up with demand as their products were being distributed in Canmore, Banff, Calgary, and other communities across Alberta. The purpose of the new brewery was to augment the capacity of the existing brewpub. The new building would also have hospitality space suited to tours and receptions once the brewing operations were running smoothly. The 1 acre site was located in a commercial zone at the gateway to Canmore, and was 5 minutes from the original brewpub. The building design was influenced by the Sydney Opera House and also by the surrounding mountains. This new three story building was 20,000 square feet in size, with the ability to initially produce 35 hectoliters, with as much as 630 hectoliters capacity available if needed.

Originally designed to be steel construction, preliminary cost estimates were too high, so exposed heavy timber construction was used instead. The additional height of the roof accommodated large windows, which provided natural light to the interior, as well as space for the brewery hopper and equipment. The main level of the building housed the mechanical and brewing equipment as well as the maturation, cold storage, bottling and shipping areas. A separate (future) distillery area was separated from the brewery by a firewall. The middle level was planned to be used for packaging and administration. The third level was not initially used, except for receiving grain from the outdoor grain storage silo via an auger conveyor. Grizzly Paw sourced the wood from the most sustainably logged forest in North America, and the roof was made with recycled rubber. The new brewery came online in 2013. All the energy they use to power the brewery was matched with energy from renewable resources, making them a carbon-neutral facility – one of three in Canada. They also partnered with Flying Pigs to divert 10,000 kg of recyclable materials from landfills per year through the Flying Pigs Recycling program. Once the new production brewery was up and running, the older brewing system in the brewpub was used to make smaller batch beers, such as a bourbon barrel-aged Scotch Ale from its single edition cellar series.

In 2016, Powderhound Blonde Ale, which had originally been a pilsner, won a gold medal at the 2016 Canadian Brewers Awards for North American blonde or amber style beer. In 2018, The Grizzly Paw added Tank310, a restaurant and event facility with a panoramic view of the surrounding mountains, to the third floor of the production brewery. The menu for Tank310 featured Alberta beef, oven fired flatbreads, seasonally fresh salads, and other classics.

When the COVID-19 pandemic reached Canada in the spring of 2020, The Grizzly Paw was affected just like many other hospitality businesses. The hospitality industry in Canmore is very seasonally driven. The Grizzly Paw employs approximately 140 people in its peak seasons, with a little over half working at the newer brewery and Tank310 restaurant, and the rest working at the original Main Street location. The restaurants were shut down for a couple of months, but The Grizzly Paw team got creative and found ways to continue to serve its communities even though customers couldn’t physically visit the restaurants. They had takeout operations during the closure that kept the restaurants functioning, and they also increased production of cans of Grizzly Paw beer to liquor and grocery stores, instead of selling kegs to accounts.

Grumpy Bear Honey Wheat is pale golden in color, light bodied and is a sweet, easy drinking ale with a touch of honey flavor. Made with real wild mountain honey, local pale malts, and wheat, this beer greets you with a floral nose and a well rounded body, sweet palate and smooth finish. The overall impression is of a crisp, well-balanced ale. If the beer list has you a bit overwhelmed, this is a great place to start. This beer received the Gold Medal at Calgary's Brewtopia’99.